Rent Cafe’s newest study examined the incomes of renters in Brooklyn using census numbers, and it found that wealthy renters making more than $150,000 a year have increased by an unbelievable 324 percent between 2011 and 2015 across the borough.
Bushwick’s rental market has been a topic of much discussion, but these new numbers show exactly how much the make-up of the neighborhood is changing.
In the 11237 ZIP code alone, the number of wealthy renters increased from 299 in 2011 to 1,052 in 2015. That’s a whopping 252 percent rise. Bushwick’s median income for comparison is $36,344 according to US Census Bureau estimates in 2012.
Other Bushwick ZIP codes fared a bit better, but even 11207, which contains a portion of southern Bushwick and East New York saw an increase of 185 percent in wealthy renters.
So even if rental prices fall when the L shuts down, the question becomes how many of these wealthy renters will simply move in order to avoid the inconvenience and whether or not the rest of Bushwick will be able to sustain the patchwork of bars, restaurants, and stores which sprung up as a result?
Featured image: Bushwick rooftops by Magdalena Waz for Bushwick Daily.